The centre of the scene represents a portico with columns and a large double-door. To the left are the women's quarters, to the right the guest rooms. The centre doors of the Palace slowly open inwards, and Apollo comes out. In his left hand he carries a large unstrung golden bow. He moves slowly and majestically, turns, and raises his right hand in salutation to the Palace.)APOLLO
DWELLING of Admetus, wherein I, a God, deigned to accept the food of serfs!
The cause was Zeus. He struck Asclepius, my son, full in the breast with a bolt of thunder, and laid him dead. Then in wild rage I slew the Cyclopes who forge the fire of Zeus. To atone for this my Father forced me to labour as a hireling for a mortal man; and Icame to this country, and tended oxen for my host. To this hour I have protected him and his. I, who am just, chanced on the son of Pheres, a just man, whom I have saved from Death by tricking the Fates. The Goddesses pledged me their faith Admetus should escape immediate death if, in exchange, another corpse were given to the Under-Gods.
One by one he tested all his friends, and even his father and the old mother who bad brought him forth-and found none that would die for him and never more behold the light of day, save only his wife.
Now, her spirit waiting to break loose, she droops upon his arm within the house; this is the day when she must die and render up her life.
But I must leave this Palace's dear roof, for fear pollution soil me in the house.
See! Death, Lord of All the Dead, now comes to lead her to the house of Hades! Most punctually he comes! How well he marked the day she had to die!
(From the right comes DEATH, with a drawn sword in his hand. He moves stealthily towards the Palace; then sees APOLLO and halts abruptly. The two Deities confront each other.)DEATH
Ha! Phoebus! You! Before this Palace! Lawlessly would you grasp, abolish the rights of the Lower Gods! Did you not beguile the Fates and snatch Admetus from the grave? Does not that suffice? Now, once again, you have armed your hand with the bow, to guard the daughter of Pelias who must die in her husband's stead!
APOLLO
Fear not! I hold for right, and proffer you just words.
DEATH
If you hold for right, why then your bow?
APOLLO
My custom is ever to carry it.
DEATH
Yes! And you use it unjustly to aid this house!
APOLLO
I grieve for a friend's woe.
DEATH
So you would rob me of a second body?
APOLLO
Not by force I won the other.
DEATH
Why, then, is he in the world and not below the ground?
APOLLO
In his stead he gives his wife-whom you have come to take.
DEATH
And shall take-to the Underworld below the earth!
APOLLO
Take her, and go! I know not if I can persuade you...
DEATH
Not to kill her I must kill? I am appointed to that task.
APOLLO
No, no! But to delay death for those about to die.
DEATH
I hear your words and guess your wish!
APOLLO
May not Alcestis live to old age?
DEATH
No! I also prize my rights!
APOLLO
Yet at most you win one life.
DEATH
They who die young yield me a greater prize.
APOLLO
If she dies old, the burial will be richer.
DEATH
Phoebus, that argument favours the rich.
APOLLO
What! Are you witty unawares?
DEATH
The rich would gladly pay to die old.
APOLLO
So you will not grant me this favour?
DEATH
Not I! You know my nature.
APOLLO
Yes! Hateful to men and a horror to the gods!
DEATH
You cannot always have more than your due.
APOLLO
Yet you shall change, most cruel though you are! For a man comes to the dwelling of Pheres, sent by Eurystheus to fetch a horse-drawn chariot from the harsh-wintered lands of Thrace; and he shall be a guest in the house of Admetus, and by force shall he tear this woman from you. Thus shall you gain no thanks from us, and yet you shall do this thing-and my hatred be upon you(APOLLO goes out. DEATH gazes after him derisively.)DEATH
Talk all you will, you get no more of me! The woman shall go down to the dwelling of Hades. Now must I go to consecrate her for the sacrifice with this sword; for when once this blade has shorn the victim's hair, then he is sacred to the Lower Gods!
(DEATH enters the Palace by the open main door. The CHORUS enters from the right. They are the Elders or Notables of the city, and, therefore move slowly, leaning upon their staffs.)LEADER OF THE CHORUS (chanting)
Why is there no sound outside the Palace? Why is the dwelling of Admetus silent? Not a friend here to tell me if I must weep for a dead Queen or whether she lives and looks upon the light, Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias, whom among all women I hold the best wife to her spouse!
CHORUS (Singing)
Is a sob to be heard?
Or the beating of hands In the house?
The lament for her end?
Not one, Not one of her servants Stands at the gate!
Ah! to roll back the wave of our woe, O Healer, Appear!
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
Were she dead They had not been silent.
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
She is but a dead body!
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
Yet she has not departed the house.
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
Ah! Let me not boast!
Why do you cling to hope?
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
Would Admetus bury her solitary, Make a grave alone for a wife so dear?
CHORUS
At the gate I see not The lustral water from the spring Which stands at the gates of the dead!
No shorn tress in the portal Laid in lament for the dead!
The young women beat not their hands!
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
Yet to-day is the day appointed....
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
Ah! What have you said?
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
When she must descend under earth FIRST SEMI-CHORUSYou have pierced my soul!
You have pierced my mind!
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
He that for long Has been held in esteem Must weep when the good are destroyed.
CHORUS
No!
There is no place on earth To send forth a suppliant ship-Not to Lycia, Not to Ammon's waterless shrine-To save her from death!
The dreadful doom is at hand.
To what laden altar of what God Shall I turn my steps?
He alone-
If the light yet shone for his eye-
Asclepius, Phoebus's son, Could have led her back From the land of shadows, From the gates of Hades, For he raised the dead Ere the Zeus-driven shaft Slew him with thunder fire....
But now What hope can I hold for her life?
LEADER (chanting)
The King has fulfilled Every rite;